SPREADSHEETS OR ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE?

Published November 2015

I love spreadsheets as much as all the business guys. Pivot Tables, Formula’s, Chart’s, Bar charts… all of them make you feel that you are under full control. Needless to say, spreadsheets are a great starting point to manage your assets.

As soon as number of users increase, ugly faces of duplication, data entry errors, version control, risk of spreadsheets being part of personal emails or USB sticks cause more dent to your asset management strategy than you think.

We have all witnessed data entry issues, duplication, version control issues etc. None of them are intentional. For example; the difference between 2 and 20 from a data entry viewpoint is not much. A user has just missed typing a zero or thought he typed 20 but actually typed 2. Probably at 5.15 on Friday when the user wanted to rush home…

From a business viewpoint the difference between 2 and 20 is 1000%. That’s correct, 1000%. If there are 4 such errors across a year, your business is 4000% out on your asset data. No businesses, leave about small businesses can afford such errors.

Version control is difficult to manage between multiple users. Spreadsheets can easily be carried in USB Sticks/Personal Emails, risking exposure of your asset data.

LET’S QUANTIFY

Let’s say you have assets worth £1 Million. Let us assume over the next 5 years you are getting 2% additional efficiency on your assets. i.e. £20,000 per year in asset efficiency. Over 5 years that’s £100,000. There are many asset management software options starting at £1500 to £3500, so to get a return of £100,000 an investment of upto £3500 sounds reasonable?

There are a number of quality asset management software available (like Hardcat & FMIS).